Comcast RISE Grants 2026: No Round Open, What Comes Next

Comcast RISE grants: 4 routes checked November 9, 2026

Grantsights checked 4 routes a business owner or nonprofit might mean by "Comcast grants." None takes small business applications today. The table shows what each paid, who could use it, and its status on the check date.

Recently closed: the 2025 Comcast RISE round. Applications ran May 1 to 31, 2025, for businesses in Boston, Massachusetts; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Nashville, Tennessee; Seattle, Washington (King County); and South Valley, Utah (Wasatch Front). Comcast announced the award of the 500 grant packages on August 19, 2025, with awards made in September.

Our reading: don't plan around a RISE round in 2026. If one comes back, it'll likely cover a handful of metro areas again, so most owners won't be eligible even then. Your best bet is a program with an open window in your state.

What happened to Comcast RISE in 2026

Comcast RISE ran 6 phases between its October 2020 launch and the 2025 round, and as of November 9, 2026, its website is gone. Grantsights checked 4 signals:

1. The site redirects. On November 9, 2026, www.comcastrise.com, comcastrise.com and comcastrise.com/faq each returned a permanent redirect to Comcast's Project UP page (opens in a new tab). The old application page, comcastrise.com/apply, returned page-not-found.
2. Project UP mentions RISE only as a total. The Project UP page says Comcast has "supported 14,500 small business owners with monetary, marketing, and technology grants." It doesn't name an open round, a deadline or an application.
3. No 2026 announcement. Comcast announced each recent round with a spring press release: May 9, 2023, April 9, 2024, and April 10, 2025. Grantsights searched the RISE pages listed in Comcast's corporate sitemap and found no 2026 round.
4. The last FAQ said to wait. An Internet Archive copy of the Comcast RISE FAQ captured February 12, 2026, says "Applications for 2025 are now closed" and tells owners to "stay tuned for updates."

According to the last archived copy of the RISE home page, captured June 26, 2026, before the redirect began, RISE had delivered more than $160 million in support to nearly 15,000 small businesses over 5 years. It added that Comcast was using business owners' feedback to "evolve our approach." That's the most recent statement Comcast made about RISE's future, and it doesn't promise a new round. A red flag to watch for: grant lists that still show "Comcast RISE, apply year-round." Comcast never ran it that way. Every cash round had a fixed window of 2 to 4 weeks.

What the last Comcast RISE round paid: $5,000 cash plus services

Each 2025 grant package included $5,000 in cash and 4 services, according to Comcast's August 19, 2025 release (opens in a new tab):

Per the archived June 1, 2025 FAQ, the retail values are Comcast's own estimates, and the FAQ said recipients would get 1099 forms for the tech makeover and the media services. Add those up and a package was worth about $30,000 on paper, but only $5,000 of it was cash. The FAQ also said there was no cash alternative to the services. If a TV spot or a new internet line wasn't useful to your business, you still couldn't swap it for money.

According to Comcast's 2025 release, RISE had delivered $160 million in monetary, marketing and technology resources to 14,500 small businesses by August 2025. That total mixes cash and services at retail value, so don't read it as $160 million in checks.

Who could apply in 2025: 9 eligibility rules

The 2025 round had 9 eligibility rules, according to the archived June 1, 2025 copy of the Comcast RISE FAQ. A business had to meet all of them:

1. The owner was at least 18, the primary decision maker, and active in day-to-day operations.
2. The business had no more than 100 full- and part-time employees.
3. It had operated for at least 2 calendar years.
4. It had earned revenue in the 12 months before the application window.
5. It was located and operating in one of the 5 regions, defined by ZIP code: Boston; Grand Rapids; Nashville; Seattle (King County); or South Valley, Utah (Wasatch Front).
6. It was independently owned and operated, not a franchise location.
7. The owner wasn't an employee or contractor of Comcast, Ernst & Young, Hello Alice or LinkedIn, or their affiliates.
8. The owner had no felony, tax-related or child support delinquency convictions in the last 10 years.
9. The owner wasn't serving as a government or quasi-government official or employee.

The FAQ also listed organizations that couldn't apply: 501(c)(3) nonprofits, chambers, schools, political advertisers, internet providers and resellers, faith-based organizations, past Comcast RISE recipients, and businesses in categories such as cannabis dispensaries, firearms, tobacco and vaping, fireworks, adult entertainment and ride sharing. You didn't need to be a Comcast or Xfinity customer.

How Comcast picked recipients

Per the 2025 FAQ, a selection committee chosen by Comcast reviewed every eligible application. The 2025 FAQ names 3 judging criteria: completeness, originality, and how persuasively the owner explained why the business should be chosen and how it supports the local economy. A second FAQ answer adds demonstrated need and a clear growth plan. Comcast's examples of community support were hiring locally, buying from other local businesses and giving to local nonprofits. Applicants who weren't chosen got an email and could apply again in a later round.

Who got Comcast RISE grants: 6 rounds since 2020

Comcast's releases describe at least 6 distinct phases of RISE since October 2020. Early rounds were aimed at Black-owned and then minority-owned businesses hit by COVID-19. From 2023 on, Comcast described the program as open to small businesses in selected cities that support their local economies.

Sources: Comcast press releases dated November 25, 2020; February 9, April 27 and September 14, 2021; May 9, 2023; April 9, 2024; and April 10 and August 19, 2025. According to Comcast's May 2023 release, the program's first 2 years reached 13,000 small businesses with over $110 million in monetary, marketing and technology grants. Most of those 13,000 got services, not cash: the cash Investment Fund covered 1,100 of them.

For example, Comcast's November 2020 release named COOL Creative, a store in Hollywood, Florida, that received TV advertising from Effectv, and MyKings Ice Cream of Denver, which received a technology makeover. Those were first-round service awards, not cash grants.

Grantsights analysis of the 6 phases found 2 patterns worth knowing. First, cash got smaller per business: $10,000 in 2021, then $5,000 from 2023 on. Second, geography got tighter: the 2020 service round reached 29 states, while each cash round covered only 5 or 6 metro areas. An owner outside those areas never had a cash route through RISE.

Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation grants: 591 nonprofit grants in 2025

The Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation (EIN 51-0390132) made 621 grants totaling $47,988,054 in 2025, according to the Part XIV grant list in its 2025 Form 990-PF, which Comcast posted on its foundation filings page (opens in a new tab) on October 14, 2026. This is Comcast's charitable giving to nonprofits, and it's separate from RISE.

Grantsights checked the foundation's returns against the RISE releases and found 3 facts that show RISE cash didn't run through it:

• Apart from the matching-gift platforms, every recipient on the 2025 list is a tax-exempt charity, and none is a for-profit business.
• On its 2024 return, the foundation answered "No" when asked whether it made any grant to an organization other than a charity, the question a grant to a business would trigger.
• The 2024 return reported $50,622,673 in grants paid, all listed in an attached statement rather than in the e-filed data.

What the foundation funds

Grantsights analysis of the 591 grants left after excluding employee matching gifts:

The median grant was $25,000, and 443 of the 591 grants (75%) were between $10,000 and $49,999. The 20 grants of $500,000 or more took $20,490,000, or 46% of the dollars. Most purposes on the list name computer skills, AI or technology job training, which matches Project UP's focus. For example, CodePath received $2,000,000 in 2025 to expand an AI training program. Harlem Children's Zone received the largest grant, $2,950,000, for cradle-to-career work, and Per Scholas received $1,500,000 to expand a technology career accelerator.

The small business money on the list

79 of the 591 grants, worth $3,852,090, name small businesses, entrepreneurs or solo founders in their purpose. These are grants to nonprofits that train or advise business owners. For example, StartOut received $375,000 for a digital skills program for entrepreneurs, Businesses United in Investing, Lending and Development (BUILD) received $750,000 to expand digital entrepreneurship training, and Tabor 100 in Washington received $20,000 for a business growth and technical assistance program.

25 of those grants, $500,000 in all, carry the same purpose line: "Amplify resources for small business community." All 25 went to nonprofits in Massachusetts, Michigan, Tennessee, Utah and Washington, the 5 states of the 2025 RISE regions. Recipients include Boston Main Streets Foundation ($40,000), Greater Grand Rapids Chamber Foundation ($20,000), Conexión Américas in Nashville ($30,000) and South Valley Chamber Economic Development Foundation in Sandy, Utah ($20,000). For an owner, the practical point is that the local chambers and business centers Comcast funds are a better door than Comcast itself: many run free classes and know which local grants are open.

Can a nonprofit apply?

Comcast's impact and Project UP pages, checked November 9, 2026, don't offer an online application for nonprofit grants. The foundation's 2024 return gives the only written process: a letter of inquiry of no more than 2 pages on letterhead, covering the organization's purpose, its 501(c)(3) status, a project summary, how it fits the foundation's goals, the amount requested and how the program is evaluated, with no submission deadlines. The return says the foundation primarily funds programs that use communications technology for literacy, community service and youth leadership. With a $25,000 median and the largest grants going to national organizations, a cold letter is a long shot. Grantsights' guide to writing a letter of inquiry covers the format, and grants for nonprofit technology lists funders with open calls.

What Comcast's RISE Pages Don't Tell You

Comcast's RISE releases lead with a $160 million total and 14,500 businesses, but 6 points don't appear on them plainly. Grantsights compared the releases with the archived FAQ and the foundation's filings to find them.

Most of the value wasn't cash. A 2025 package had $5,000 in cash and about $25,000 in services at retail value. Owners who needed working capital got a sixth of the package in usable money.

Services can cost you at tax time. The 2025 FAQ said Comcast would issue 1099 forms for the retail value of the tech makeover and the media campaign. A common mistake is treating a services award as free: you may owe income tax on value you never received as cash.

Most owners were never eligible. Each cash round covered 5 or 6 metro areas, defined by ZIP code. If you weren't in one, you couldn't apply, however strong your business was.

Past recipients were shut out. The 2025 rules barred businesses that had already received any RISE award, including services. If you won a TV campaign in 2021, you couldn't apply for the $5,000 package later.

Nonprofits and faith-based groups couldn't apply. RISE was for for-profit businesses only. Nonprofits should look at the foundation route above, which works differently.

Windows were short and announced late. Recent rounds were announced in April or May and closed within 4 weeks. Owners who don't underestimate that timing keep their business documents ready, since there's no time to build them after the release goes out.

How to be ready if Comcast RISE returns: 5 steps

No round exists to apply to on November 9, 2026, so these steps cover two things: being ready if Comcast brings RISE back, and finding money in the meantime.

1. Watch Comcast's press releases, not grant lists. Every recent round started with a release on corporate.comcast.com and an application on Comcast's own site. If a list shows a RISE deadline without a matching Comcast release, treat it as stale.
2. Keep the basics on file. Past rounds asked for proof of at least 2 years of operation and recent revenue, so keep tax returns, a short business description and an ownership summary current.
3. Write your community story now. Comcast scored applications on need, a growth plan and support for the local economy. A paragraph on who you hire, which local suppliers you buy from and which local nonprofits you back works for many grant programs.
4. Get free help from an SBA resource partner. The SBA resource partner network (opens in a new tab) includes Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers and SCORE mentors. An adviser can tell you which local grants are open this month.
5. Search open grants in your state. Use Grantsights grant search to find programs with current deadlines where your business is located.

Alternatives to Comcast RISE grants

The SBA doesn't give grants to start or grow a business. According to SBA's grants page (opens in a new tab), checked November 9, 2026, "SBA does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business," and its grants go to nonprofits, resource partners and educational organizations. If you need about the same cash a RISE package carried, the SBA microloan program (opens in a new tab) lends up to $50,000 through nonprofit intermediaries, and SBA says the average microloan is about $13,000. It's a loan, not a grant, but it's open year-round.

Grantsights guides that fill the gap RISE left:

• Open programs first: Grantsights' list of the best grants for small businesses in 2026 puts current deadlines up front, and the complete guide to small business grants covers who funds businesses and why most grants carry conditions.
• Your state: state and city programs get far fewer applications than a national brand's contest, and small business grants by state lists them. Owners in the 2025 RISE states can start with Massachusetts, Michigan, Tennessee, Utah and Washington.
• By owner: grants for minority-owned businesses, best grants for minority-owned businesses in 2026, best grants for Black-owned businesses, grants for women-owned businesses and grants for veteran-owned businesses.
• Research and tech firms: federal grants for small businesses covers SBIR and STTR awards, the main federal grants paid straight to companies.
• Other free money: pitch prizes, tax credits and local revolving funds are in free money for small business.
• For nonprofits: corporate grants for nonprofits covers companies with open local programs, including Walmart grants.

How Grantsights Checked This Guide

Grantsights read 17 pages, filings and archived copies on November 9, 2026, and checked every status, amount and eligibility rule against the Comcast page or filing that states it. Grant aggregator listings and news coverage weren't used for any figure. Where Comcast's live site no longer has a page, the guide cites an Internet Archive copy of Comcast's own page and gives its capture date.

Sources

• Comcast: Project UP (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: Comcast Supports American Small Business Growth, Awarding 500 Grant Packages to Entrepreneurs in Five Regions (August 19, 2025) (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: Comcast RISE To Provide Grant Packages to 500 More Small Businesses in Five Regions (April 9, 2024) (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: Comcast RISE Provides Grant Packages to 500 More Small Businesses in Five Cities (May 9, 2023) (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: Comcast RISE Commits $11 Million in Grants (September 14, 2021) (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: Comcast RISE to Support 13,000 Small Businesses by 2022 (April 27, 2021) (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: Comcast RISE to Award $5 Million in Grants (February 9, 2021) (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: Comcast RISE Awards Over 700 Small Businesses (November 25, 2020) (opens in a new tab)
• Internet Archive: Comcast RISE FAQ, captured June 1, 2025 (opens in a new tab)
• Internet Archive: Comcast RISE FAQ, captured February 12, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• Internet Archive: Comcast RISE home page, captured June 26, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation grants and IRS forms (opens in a new tab)
• Comcast: The Comcast Foundation 2025 IRS Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation 2024 Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)
• SBA: Grants (opens in a new tab)
• SBA: Microloans (opens in a new tab)
• SBA: Resource partners (opens in a new tab)